Apple Grows Mac Business, Takes 8.5% of PC Market Share

Apple has continued to grow its Mac platform during the first quarter of 2011, according to market research firm IDC. The company said that Apple moved up to claim the #4 spot in top PC vendors in the U.S., grabbing 8.5% market share along the way. IDC pegged Apple’s unit growth for the quarter at 9.6%, while the market as a whole actually shrank 3.2%.

Top 5 Vendors, United States PC Shipments, First Quarter 2011 (Preliminary) (Units Shipments are in thousands)

Rank

Vendor

1Q11 Shipments

Market Share

1Q10 Shipments

Market Share

1Q11/1Q10 Growth

1

HP

4,345

27.0%

4,453

24.7%

-2.4%

2

Dell

3,724

23.1%

4,220

23.4%

-11.8%

3

Toshiba

1,663

10.3%

1,506

8.3%

10.4%

4

Apple

1,375

8.5%

1,254

7.0%

9.6%

5

Acer Group

1,331

8.3%

2,298

12.7%

-42.1%

Others

3,681

22.8%

4,309

23.9%

-14.6%

All Vendors

16,118

100.0%

18,040

100.0%

-10.7%

IDC didn’t have much specific to say about Apple’s Mac business, other than a throwaway line in Acer’s summary (“In the U.S., Acer also ceded its place to a surging Apple.”). The company only included such summaries for the top five global vendors, where Apple didn’t place.

In the meanwhile, the global PC slowdown was pinned on the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear crisis in Japan, as well as the civil uprisings in the Middle East. The firm also said that “good enough computing ” has become a reality, meaning that both netbooks and media tablets offer an experience that is close enough to using a dedicated computer, that sales of legacy devices are waning.

“The real question PC vendors have to think hard about is how to enable a compelling user experience that can justify spending on the added horsepower,” Jay Chou, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, said in a statement.

In the global market, HP trounced Dell for the #1 spot, with Acer at #3 , Lenova at #4, , and Toshiba a distant #5. Only Lenova’s and Toshiba’s sales grew compared to the first quarter of 2010 (Again, Apple didn’t rank in the top five globally, and thus IDC didn’t offer numbers for the company. Apple will report its results later in April.)